A Week of Reflection

[It looks so good, it has to be used, alas 3rd ravager you have been replaced]

Hi,

As is normally best, after my last tournament I took a little break from gaming, and spent some great time with family over the bank holiday weekend.  It's always nice to have a bit of Gaming / Real Life balance :) - at least if you want to stay with your girlfiend/fiancee/wife.

However it's hasn't stopped me relfecting on how my Dark Eldar and Space Wolf lists should evolve.

My first impression coming away from my last tournament was that my Dark Eldar needed more anti-tank, however upon reflection I think I can blame a bit of my bad tank killing on a poor luck, however there were some mistakes I made, chiefly being too aggressive with my trueborn and getting them killed too quickly.  I must endevour to keep them on their venom and resist the urge to disembark them turn one to get 6 more lance shots at enemy vehicles.

Out of the three units I was trying out (beastmasters, reavers & a razorwing) only the razorwing seemed reliable, mainly because I tried to off load it's missile payload as soon as possible.  Both the beastmasters and reavers showed their great potential.  The beastmasters killing a grey knight librarian and held up a grey dreadnaught in combat by ripping it's powerfist off, while the reavers increasing the chance of a pentration hit killing a holofield-ed fire prism from 1 in 9 to 1 in 4.

[My army in action in their last tournament, battle reports coming...]

I have to send in my army list for my next two tournaments this week (which are the lower size of 1500 pts), and it hard to include either reavers of beastmasters.  It seems too risky to drop to 3 troop choices, or remove the reliable trueborn to put reavers in, or beastmasters instead of incubi.  Reavers and Beastmasters seem like units that support th more reliable parts of the army, and therefore are more suited to larger games.  However I still need more experience with both these units so I will continue to playtest them, but they don't quite make the smaller 1500 point lists.  Beastmasters are close to covering for incubi, but I like the incubi ability to just shread MEQ (or at least dent them badly), while a failure to roll 6's to wound can see the beastmasters do nothing and bounce.  Although the beastmasters are better against light infantry I think wyches, wracks, splinter cannons and even razorwing missiles have this covered.

Role Reversal Gaming

Tonight I played my mate who was trying out Dark Eldar and I was playing with my Space Wolves.  It was an interesting experience being on the receiving end of venoms, trueborn and lances.

I was trying out putting slightly more heavier mech in my list, hoping to draw firepower away from my light mech transports.  In went a predator for a long fang squad, and a walking grey hunter unit gained a drop pod.  Out went fragile landspeeders for cheap razorback transports.

A surreal feeling was looking at my deployment and thinking it resembled an imperial guard parking lot:

[the las/plas razorbacks were actually representing heavy bolter razorbacks, while I try and source heavy bolter turrets from ebay]

My mate was trying an army of threes, three troop choices of wyches, ravagers, trueborn, venoms, raiders, haemonoculus :) His list was:

3 Haemonoculus with Liquifier guns and Venom Blades
3 units of 9 Wyches, including Hexatrix with Agoniser in Raiders
3 units of 3 trueborn with 3 blasters in venoms
3 units of 3 reavers with a heat lance each
3 ravagers with 3 dark lances

One of the things that shocked me playing against the Dark Eldar was how annoying liquifier guns were.  It has definitely made me reconsider putting some back in my list (I was almost about to drop them to save points).

The game ended a bloody draw on turn 6 with us each having one objective each.  I liked most things in my list, but I was not impressed with the single drop pod.  A scatter left the unit a bit to far away from the rest of my army to get any support, so I may lose it to bring the squad back to full size.  The drop pod also did not draw much firepower in the game, because it just isn't a threat once it's landed, unless it's contesting an objective.  I'll have to make do with 8 vehicles.  2 spare razorbacks plus a dread and a predator will hopefully give the rhinos more chance to survive to bring the aggressive grey hunters into mid table to dominate the battlefield.

My current space wolf list can be found here, and the current Dark Eldar list I'm considering for my next two tournament is below.  Feel free to comment on either list ot anything else from your experiences being on the receiving end of trueborn filled venoms or your stories or rubber lance syndrome :)

Rathstar

Draft 1500 Point Dark Eldar List

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 55
with Venom Blade

6 Incubi - 132
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
3 Wracks - 30
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105
Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105
Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances - 145

Total: 1499 Pts

One change I'm giving serious thought to is reducing the incubi to 5, losing the liquifier guns and losing a couple of the troop models to up the trueborn to units of 4, all with blasters (bringing my lance total up to 20).